As fraud advances and demand for personalized banking grows, Philippine banks are turning to Artificial Intelligence or AI. While others adapt, Maya is building its own to boost security, customize services, and scale digital finance.
At the recent AWS AI Day, Maya Group Chief Technology Officer Alfred Lo unveiled homegrown AI breakthroughs, including a fraud detection technology that can reduce losses by up to 98 percent, a chatbot that handles most customer inquiries, and a recommendation system that boosts user engagement.
“AI is reshaping banking to ensure every Filipino benefits from the digital economy,” Lo said. “At Maya, we’re competing with AI itself—to stay ahead of fraudsters, shifting customer behaviors, and a digital economy that never stops moving.”
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has flagged a rise in scams, phishing attacks, and account takeovers, particularly among new bank customers. However, most fraud detection systems still rely on rule-based methods, AI with simple feature engineering, or graph-based techniques.
Maya’s innovative fraud detection approach, Transaction Sequence Embeddings, analyzes and uncovers subtle patterns between transactions —flagging those that resemble fraudulent behavior or deviate from a user’s normal patterns. The company is finalizing a technical paper showcasing this proprietary innovation for publication in a premier journal.
“Our model can reduce fraud losses by up to 98 percent, significantly enhancing the effectiveness of anti-fraud systems,” Lo said.
